New to all of it, couple quick Q's

[OldSleekOlds]

For whatever it's worth, Bruce Nescher thought enough of the Aristocrat design that he got design patents on both the Vee bottom and the Tunnel bottom.

Tunnel = Des 244,841 .......June 28,1977
Vee = Des 244,769.......June 21, 1977

Design Patents are only protection for 14 years. He must have thought that everybody was gonna copy it. There was an awful lot of copying going on about then. I have never seen any boat that looked anything like the Aristocrat.

[osr1]

Aristocrat? Is that what my/your boat are called? Were they only that year? I'd love to know so much more about it than I do. It has quite and array of guages. It looks to have a aftermarket Tach and Oil Temp guage, neither of which work. I'd like to replace them with originals, It looks like the oil temp was added, is this possible? Also, (I ask to many questions) I need to clean out my fuel tanks so I can use them, any ideas (They look to be fiberglassed in and have old varnished fuel in them. I've been running jerry cans in case your wondering. Thanks Again.

[Storz]

I love the look of the Aristocrat, I just asked about them over on hotboat.net also

[OldSleekOlds]

Aristocrat? Is that what my/your boat are called? Were they only that year? I'd love to know so much more about it than I do. It has quite and array of guages. It looks to have a aftermarket Tach and Oil Temp guage, neither of which work. I'd like to replace them with originals, It looks like the oil temp was added, is this possible? Also, (I ask to many questions) I need to clean out my fuel tanks so I can use them, any ideas (They look to be fiberglassed in and have old varnished fuel in them. I've been running jerry cans in case your wondering. Thanks Again.

I don't know what years the Sleek Craft Aristocrat was produced. The original owner of Sleek Craft was Bruce Nescher. He died a few years ago. I am told that the original molds are alive and well and owned by Rodger Finney, owner of Finneys Plastic , Lake Havasu City. I talked to him a couple years ago. He said he would supply a Sleek Craft tunnel hull just like the one I have for $10K. That's for a bare hull. No seats, motor, jet pump, no rigging of any kind. He said even the $10K would depend on if it was to be a light, medium, or heavy layup. Finney worked at Sleek Craft at one time. I think he also raced the boats.

The original instruments were "Aquameter", I think...could be wrong.



They are (left to right) tach,voltmeter, oil pressure, temp, left fuel, right fuel, and speed.

I was lucky, mine all work. I replaced the Ammeter with a Voltmeter. The tach is accurate and the speedo is accurate (within 1 mph) at 50 mph. Amazing when you consider that my boat was recovered from the bottom of a lake. When I got it, (1 1/2 years later) it still had water in the motor and both fuel tanks. Nobody had even tried to get the water out. I paid $500 for the whole thing including trailer.

To flush the water/fuel out of the fuel tanks, I used the vent to apply a small amount (2-3 psi) of air pressure. The original hose was cracked and needed to be replaced anyway, so I used that new hose (use 5/8" fuel hose) to put air into the tank. A piece of 3/8" hose connected to the tank outlet pipe provided an easy way to catch the stuff coming out without making a huge mess. I did the same thing to both tanks.

When they were empty, I put about 5 gallons of alcohol in one of the tanks and sloshed it as best I could. Then forced it out with air as before. However, I directed the discharge into the other tank. I used the same 5 gallons of alcohol several times, going back and forth, flushing each tank at least twice. I then emptied both tanks and removed the gauge sending units from both tanks (easy to do). Both sending units were very rusty and had to be replaced.

With the sending units out, I used the discharge from my shop vac into the fill port of each tank (one at a time) and let it blast out where the sending unit goes. This is how the tanks were dried.

I put new gauge sending units in both tanks and replaced all the hoses. Ran 3/8" fuel hose from each tank to rear center of boat....connect to tee....run 1/2" fuel hose to fuel pump, filter, regulator, carb.

Works great.

[OldSleekOlds]

Almost forgot, my fuel tanks are also glassed in. They are made of aluminum and each holds about 20 gallons. The tanks should be OK. The gauge sending units may need replacing.

[osr1]

Every day or two I get more done, an d also have more fun with this boat. The trim seems to not do much (maybe at my power level) It seems best with the bow up all the time, If I trim it down, you can watch the mph drop. I also have these numbers now. At 48 mph WOT (Speedo & GPS) the engine is at 4500-4600 rpm. Now this is a stock 230-250 hp motor, so I ask the question I don't want to know the answer to, he he j/k. Will more horsepower rev too high and not go much faster, am I into pump problems (other than the odvious YJ problems)? Thanks again.

[OldSleekOlds]

Every day or two I get more done, an d also have more fun with this boat. The trim seems to not do much (maybe at my power level) It seems best with the bow up all the time, If I trim it down, you can watch the mph drop. I also have these numbers now. At 48 mph WOT (Speedo & GPS) the engine is at 4500-4600 rpm. Now this is a stock 230-250 hp motor, so I ask the question I don't want to know the answer to, he he j/k. Will more horsepower rev too high and not go much faster, am I into pump problems (other than the odvious YJ problems)? Thanks again.

I really don't know much about the YJ pump. I never ran mine. As soon as I found out about it's limitations, I got a kit and converted it to Aggressor. Fortunately, I had the time, the place (my own machine shop), and the money to do whatever I wanted. I had read that the practical limit for the YJ pump was around 60 mph. Going for more would lead to severe cavitation issues that could not be resolved.

Unfortunately, I don't know what hp would be required to get 60 mph out of your boat with that pump.

Your boat can easily handle double or triple the hp that you have. The YJ pump can not.

I suggest that you post your question on the Banderlog board. The folks there are very friendly and informed. As a matter of fact, I would guess that there is more real experience and factual information available than anywhere else (jet boat stuff that is). Many guys who race or have raced jet boats lurk there. They are also willing to share what they know (at least a lot of what they know). They can also tell you what you might need and where to get it.

http://www.banderlog.com/phpbb/index...89c70a0e8af60b

Roger

[taylormanss]

great looking sleek!

[osr1]

Well here I am in the water a year later. Quite a bit more hp now, I think it's time to upgrade the YJ. 55 mph is all it has, I guess the motor is about 360-380hp with revs in the 56-5800 range. I do notice as I trim up it is alot faster, it feels like it needs to trim up more (it goes way down and doesn't do much, but only goes just a bit past straight out when trimming up. I think I'll modify it to trim higher tomorrow just to see what happens, anyone else ever done this?